Religious Hypocricy
Question: Why did Paul say that the Jewish believers in Antioch were playing the hypocrite? I tend to think that Paul uses this word because the actions of the Jewish believers were not in accord with the person of Jesus, the One they were claiming to have trust in.
Paul has spent Galations 1.13-2.10 recounting the story of His conversion and mission work… a sort of defense of the message he is proclaiming. The entire story serves to reiterate Galations 1.9-12:
As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
In these verses, as well as the rest of the story, Paul asserts three things about the Gospel:
1- It is the same good news he has proclaimed from the beginning
2- The act of proclaiming this message is a God initiated, God oriented, God pleasing action.
3- The message is not a man made religious system or good news. Rather the message is the person and work of Jesus.
Let’s look at Paul’s story of conversion and mission a bit more deeply as we consider these “arguments.”
First off, what happened in Paul’s conversion? Paul says that his life was a life of Judaism and that he was “ahead of the grade” in zeal for his ancestral traditions (here read: religion). The single event that one-eightied his life was “… when He who had called me… was pleased to reveal His Son in me…” Did you catch that? God the Father decided to reveal God the Son (Jesus) in Paul’s life. Well, what does that mean? I hope Paul isn’t trying to tell us that He became an incarnation of Christ and therefore – blah, blah, blah – new-ageish nonsense. Let’s look at Luke’s record of Paul’s conversion to get a different perspective.
Acts 9.1-22: Note Paul’s reaction to the voice of the Almighty in vs 5, “Who are you Lord?” All of Paul’s rabbinical training, all of his zeal and excellence in Judaism amounted to nothing because he did not know the God he claimed to serve. But this encounter on the Damascus road changed all of that. Paul received an answer to His question – “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”
Now, some texts do not have the last part of verse 5 and the first part of verse 6, but I like them in this story: Jesus continues, “It’s hard for you to kick against the goads.” See, Paul had been trained in the Old Covenant and should have seen this Man, Jesus, was the promised Messiah. He had heard the fulfillment of all that the scriptures spoke of when Stephen had made his case before the Jewish counsel and was martyred for the Name of Jesus (Acts 6.8-7.60). But Paul had not listened! Instead he had begun persecuting all who identified with the Name of Jesus. But this revelation of Jesus (remember Galatians 1.12) brought Paul to a place of surrender saying, “Lord, what do you want me to do?”
After Paul is restored from his blindness, (side note: I really like the symbolism of Acts 9.17-18) his whole life is reoriented away from Jewish tradition (religion) and toward proclaiming the truth that had been revealed to him – namely that Jesus is the Christ (Compare Galatians 1.17 with Acts 9.20-22- note: Paul preached the Messiah to the Jews, and he spent his efforts proving that Jesus is the promised Christ).
Because of this radical reorientation, the believers in Judea glorifiy God. And this, I believe, is God’s reason for revealing Jesus in Paul; people who once feared him are now praising God because of the transformation in Paul’s life due to the truth of the person of Jesus. This is also the message that Paul preached from the beginning of his belief – that Jesus is the promise of God fulfilled, so come and follow the Christ.
And so we see that Paul’s mission is God initiated (after all, Paul sure didn’t flip the God switch on the Damascus road), and this message Paul carries was not taught to him by a counsel of elders. In fact, it was not some religious tradition to be zealously adhered to. The message itself is the person of Jesus, and Galatians 1.13-2.10 draws two huge points about the nature of Paul’s message: 1) It was approved as the true message by the other apostles, and 2) it never ever involved preaching Jewish traditions or religious practices.
So now we get to the confrontation of Peter. Based on what Paul’s story of conversion and mission has shown us about the nature of the gospel, I think it is safe to say that the Jewish believers were practicing hypocrisy because they were not being straightforward about the person of Jesus, and what His death and resurrection accomplished. They were attempting to find perfection through the law… or rather, they were trying to find the favor of men by separating themselves from those whom they had deemed inferior, even though those “gentile sinners” also carried the name of Jesus. If that’s not hypocrisy, I don’t know what is.
Seeing Jesus
Luke 23.8 records Herod being very glad to see Jesus. Why? Because Herod wanted to see something spectacular, to see a sign and a wonder… in short, Herod wanted entertainment. I often wonder why I come to Jesus. Is it because i am captivated by the beauty, truth, and love of Yahweh made manifest in Jesus… or am I hoping to see some sign, some wonder… am I hoping to be entertained and pandered to by the Lord of Hosts?
The modern practice of Christianity has reduced a life of faith in the promises of Yahweh down to seven “truths” to achieve your greatest potential as a man/woman of God. Yesterday, I heard someone say on TV that “Your success is in God’s best interest because He has made you in his image, meaning that he has stamped His name on you. Therefore, God’s reputation is on the line in your success. By prospering you, God is being zealous for his name.”… or some [crap] like that. How is this any different than Herod? Are we looking for God to do something to make us happy in our own eyes?
But the other side of the coin is the abject despondency that threatens to over take us when we believe the lie that God’s will is the exact opposite of everything that we love and find joy in (John Piper has done a good job refuting this idea with his idea of “Christian Hedonism“).
So how do we approach Jesus? Dare we edge close to blasphemy and demand that he treat us like the princes and princesses we really are and give us every little mud pie that will satiate our fleshly desires for a time? Or, should we come Groveling and denying any and all happiness that “thy will be done”?
Truth is, neither extreme of the heart is drawing toward the actual person of Jesus. Often we reshape Christ into the kind of Lord we think we want. Personally, I think this is the cause for allot of really bad teaching and the loss of Hope. Our warped perceptions lead us to be dissatisfied with God, and often let down when things don’t go our way.
A similar situation faced the disciples of Jesus in the days after the crucifixion: a dead lord and no revolt against Rome. How was this the Messiah? Was it all a lie? Was it a sham? Where were the hosts of heaven and Jesus’ coming in Power? Wasn’t He the Son of God after all? And what about all the good He did: healing the sick, freeing the oppressed, proclaiming the message of the Kingdom! How could this dead man bring a kingdom?
Most of the Jews at that time were looking for a Messiah that would be a nationalist, one to over throw the political powers that be and raise up the nation of Israel in power again. But this was not why Jesus came the first time. He did not come to fufill His peoples expectations… He did not come to do what was right in their eyes… Jesus did not come to pander to the desires for entertainment, to rule as a tyrant of un-joy, or to do anything less than to fulfill everything that His Father had spoken.
That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.” And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
We need to see how Jesus is the fulfillment of everything spoken in our Bibles. Without Jesus, the Bible would be a useless, fanciful set of stories and writings. Jesus began to expound the scriptures to these two disciples, and they began to hope.
So, how do we approach Jesus? How do I approach Jesus in a correct way, in a way that is not spoiled brat, deject slave or based upon some other misconception of our Savior?
Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
It is not some easy, seven steps to freedom. It is not a quick understanding of your purpose. It is not believing more and harder. No, it is the simple willingness to be refined by this Consuming Fire. Let the Spirit of God explain all things and remind us of the words of Jesus, see that He alone is who the scriptures point to as having zoe life to give, and be willing to act on the truth we are being taught (be a doer of the word!).
I know this can sound trite, and I am not trying to easily explain away the problem of a mis-conception of Jesus with a simple Sunday school answer of, “read your Bible and pray”. I know we all have pre-constructed notions of what the text says, and that shapes our interpretations and our understandings of who Jesus is. But the real Jesus has been raised up that He might draw all men unto Himself and instruct them in all truth. If we are serious about seeing Jesus correctly, then we need to be willing to let our expectations go. If we expect Him to entertain, we will be board. If we expect Him to rule our lives with an iron curtain and fist, we will miss the call of the good shepherd. If we expect Jesus to conform to our theological ideas and constructs just because they make since, we will never know what it is to receive the Word of God with meekness.
Jesus Christ alone should shape our understanding of Yahweh and a life of faith. Until we can admit that we do not see clearly and need to be corrected we will be like Herod, sending Jesus away because He did not suit our expectations.
To What Shall I Compare the Kingdom of Heaven…
There once was a man who owed a very large debt. He had inherited it from his parents and then had added to the debt himself. No matter how much he tried, his payments were never enough to keep up with his account. It quickly became apparent that he could never have enough to pay off.
Before him lay a choice. On the one hand, he could continual try and pay off his debt, working hard and just hoping against all hope that someday it might just be enough. On the other hand, since this debt was so great anyways, he could choose to live in denial, pretend he was wealthy, and try to just enjoy life… hoping that the creditors never caught up with him. If the man was honest, both options had very little consolation to his soul.
One day, he heard a rumor that there was a gracious benefactor who was offering to pay the debts of others in full. At first, he brushed it off as a fairy tail… after all, who in there right mind would pay off someone else’s debt? And even if someone like that really existed, his debt was too large, no one could ever pay this kind of debt. But the rumors persisted. He even met some people who had accepted the benefactors offer, and they assured his the rumors were true. Eventually, he began to believe that such a gracious benefactor really existed. It was said that all the man had to do was to write a letter to the gracious benefactor accepting the offer to have his debt paid in full. So one morning the man with the debt sat down and wrote a letter to the gracious benefactor.
That evening, he found a letter in his mailbox from the gracious benefactor. It read:
Your debt is taken as my own, and I am more than able to pay it off in full. My store houses are lavishly full, and I want you to enjoy all that I have. Ask, and I shall graciously give just as I have graciously given you this check that will pay any debt in full when the time of accounting comes.
That you may believe my words are true, and that you may no more live as a man in debt, I have enclosed this earnest money. Write to me often, for I want to teach you how to live with this eager payment, and all the riches of my store houses. Find others who have also accepted my gift, and let them help you learn to live from my store houses.
All I ask is that you remember the kindness and grace I have shown you, and that you show love to your neighbor. Tell others with debts that I have the means and the desire to pay all debts in full. Share the hope and peace I am now giving you.
The man with the debt could not believe it was true, but there in the envelope was a check. On the check was written, “paid in full” and it was dated for the day of accounting. And (as if that was not enough) there was the earnest money as well. This was more than he could have ever earned in his life time.
“Truly this is a gracious benefactor.” thought the man. He rushed out of his home and found the others who had accepted the gracious benefactors offer. They gladly shared what they had learned from the gracious benefactor, and they encouraged the man to read the letters the gracious benefactor had already sent to all mankind. This man continued to grow in his love and understanding of the gracious benefactor, and over the years many letters were written between the two of them. The man learned how to live as a wealthy man instead of living as a debtor, and he tried to tell everyone he met about the gracious benefactor and his loving offer to pay all their debts.
I tell you the truth: when the day of accounting comes this man will stand justified before the Father in heaven.
Those who have ears, let them hear.
Father, Husband, Theological Dreamer, Web Designer, Photographer, Coffee Chugger... Jesus obsessed & dreaming of a better Christianity. It's kind of like listening to a cross between guerrilla radio and a street corner prophet with a bad case of tourettes.
